Hong Kong and Viet Nam

We were in Hong Kong on the 12th, but I haven't been able to blog because of this frustrating internet service on the ship which has not worked at all for the last few days.  Anyway, Hong Kong was great.  It is a beautiful, organized and dense city.  The harbor is framed by another bridge which we barely cleared.  We rode a tram straight up to Victoria Peak in Aberdeen for a great view of the city and harbor.  We also rode on a sanpam to see how the boat people live, then another boat ride to a floating restaurant.  How fun was that!  The food was delicious and very familiar.  It was Cantonese-Chinese which seems to be what we are served in the U.S (much lighter, less frying, less spice & no eyes).  We shopped in Stanley Park, a fairly upscale area near the beach, though the shops were great for bargaining - oh oh.  Then we took a harbor cruise, so lots of boats today.  All in all a fun day.

On the 14th we went to Nha Trang, Viet Nam which was a beach resort for R&R for the U.S. servicemen during the Viet Nam war.  It's rather bleak though some new resorts are being built. Brian took a tender to get a 333 Beer (recommendation of Joe's) and I went on a short city tour to the Dam Market and Silk Embroidery workshop.  Watching people on the street was the most fun. We don't need to return here.

On the 15th we went to Saigon and I can't begin to describe it.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride from the port and that was the highlight.  Unbelievable how some people live.  Everybody was on motorcyles, living and working right on the street, selling food from tiny pots, etc. etc.  It was like a movie.  I'll just have share to photos because I took a ton of them.  I had an interesting Vietnamese lunch and toured the city.  Brian ventured out to find some old Army spots.  That was partly sucessful, but at least he survived the traffic to tell the tale.  More 333 beer helped. 

Now there is a problem with the anchor so we are going to be several hours late leaving the port.  Still having fun.